What next?

[QTOFFER]

I visited several lfs this week looking for a blue acara (aequidens pulcher) that is truly a blue acara and not the similar-looking, but vicious green terror (aequidens rivulatus).

Anyway, in one very small store, I spotted a tank filled with blood red parrots. http://www.aquazoo.co.uk/page.cfm/Type=Fish/ID=200
Now for those of you not familiar with the red parrot, it's a sterile hybrid cichlid that doesn't occur in nature. Many cichlid keepers want nothing to do with this "species" - in many ways, the red parrot is to cichlid breeders what the mule is to horse breeders.

OK, so in this crowded tank of lumpy, funny-faced, clumsy swimmers are some blue, green, yellow, and purple fish.
Yep, dyed blood red parrots. The store also had dyed glass fish, dyed tetras, dyed oscars, and glowfish. I'm not trying to come off as a purist, but with so many cool, unusual, and unique fish in the world, I think it's a shame that this small lfs decided to devote so much of its retail space to these man-made oddities. What's next...painted discus?

 

[Menagerie]

I wish my flounder were painted, then maybe I could see them :?
(Just Kidding folks!)

You need to be careful of the Acara look-a-likes. Jack Dempseys look like the Acara, too!

 

[QTOFFER]

I wish my flounder were painted, then maybe I could see them :? (Just Kidding folks!)

I know it would be alot of work to change the substrate, but would black sand help?

You need to be careful of the Acara look-a-likes. Jack Dempseys look like the Acara, too!

Some unscrupulous idiot tried selling me a JD instead of a blue acara (which he doesn't stock) even after I told him I only wanted semi-aggressives.
Him: "Oh, dempseys are pretty laid back. He'll get along fine with other cichlids his own size."
Me: Yeah, only after the other cichlids are DEAD."

 

[Menagerie]

WOW, what a jerk!!

As for my flounder--they change color to match the substrate. In the LFS, they were on a light blue gravel and were a white color with dark-almost black spots. Those that were up against the dark back wall of the tank, were a dark brown in color. Now, there are all buried in the sand! They are so little!

 

[krap101]

let them be. when they feel more confortable (or hungry) they'll come out.

 

[Menagerie]

That is comfort for them--they feed at night so I dropped in a couple of frozen worms.

 

[krap101]

try a frozen mouse theyll enjoy that 8P. yeah they sell em at my lfs 8P grose isnt it?. yeah i think thats best until they get use to you